Scottish League Division 2, New Douglas Park, Hamilton
Saturday, 5 October 2002
Report by Gilbert Mowat
It's difficult to know where to begin. This was more than just a bad home defeat by a talented team - this felt like the very death of the club was being played out on the pitch in front of us.
That Accies were outplayed in every department is indisputable. It used to be the case that any kind of defeat by a small club like Stranraer would have been the cue for a mass demonstration of fans calling for the manager's head on a platter. Accies lost 5-1 to Stranraer, but I heard not one word shouted in criticism of Chris Hillcoat. That's not just because he's a firm favourite of the Accies support - everybody knows that the problems on the playing field are not his fault. The blame lies firmly at the door of Deeka leader Jim Watson, the man who has engineered Accies slide from Division 1 respectability to financial and footballing ruin.
As mentioned previously, there will be an egm of the holding company this week, where former friends and now bitter enemies Jim Watson and Jan Stepek will seek to remove each other from power. Should Watson hold the upper hand, then he will be able to continue with his highly dubious plans for the club. These will presumably include the removal of the current board and the recruitment of his new hand-picked selection of puppets. It may also include the injection of just enough capital to keep the wolf from the door for a wee while. Just long enough for the next batch of consortium tax relief to arrive before he retires to his French villa. The long term prospects for this fine old institution would be very bleak indeed.
Should there be enough clout to remove Watson and allow Stepek to regain control, then things would be very different. It is possible that he would seek to get Jock Brown involved again and have the previous takeover bid renewed. Whatever happens, it is clear that Stepek wants to quit Accies but also wants to help them to survive. But this would also be at a cost. The takeover deal involved Accies giving up their ownership of the stadium with the debts being eradicated in return. So we would be like Clyde or Airdrie United in that we would have a nice stadium to play in but would gain no revenue from the facilities other than turnstile revenue. Had Jim Watson not taken control from Alistair Duguid in July 1997 we would not be in this mess. It is much more likely that we would be in a complete stadium owned by the club.
Enough of the essay on the problems off the field. In hindsight, it's no surprise that Accies lost this game. Stranraer had won their last 4 league games and were going well. The Accies players had threatened to strike and were not in confident mood.
This is not a good Accies team. Under normal circumstances, I would be reaching for my thesaurus looking up new ways to express how poor they are. But these are not normal circumstances and I'm not going to go down that route. These guys deserve a break, not criticism from someone who merely turns up to watch and support them. Suffice it to say that there are some in the team who aren't ready yet and others who never will be.
Despite Accies having a lot of the ball, Stranraer won this game at a canter. They opened the scoring after 6 minutes when a cross to the far post, that should have been cleared by either Graham Potter or Mahdi Elfallah, was headed home by Lee Sharp.
The visitors nearly doubled their lead shortly afterwards when slack defending by Craig Smillie allowed one of their forwards to get between him and the goal on the left wing. He lobbed the advancing Potter but his effort narrowly missed the far post. Accies nearly got themselves back into the game when Stuart Callaghan headed against the bar from about 18 yards out with John Hillcoat beaten.
That it was not to be our day was confirmed shortly afterwards when Ian Harty scored a terrific second goal for Stranraer, cutting inside Smillie and curling the ball high over Potter into the postage stamp corner. The game was over 8 minutes later when Stranraer went 3-0 ahead. This time two defenders got into a fankle on the Accies left, allowing Finlayson to cross into the area where it was met superbly by the forehead of Allan Jenkins. The 30 or so Stranraer fans were in raptures.
At this stage it was just a matter of how many goals Accies would concede. They managed to increase the deficit just 4 minutes after the break when Kevin Finlayson crashed the ball high past Potter from the edge of the area. Some Accies fans decided to vote with their feet at this stage, the rest were left in stunned silence, apart from those calling for Watson to turn up his toes.
Accies did have a few half chances, however, as they sought to make the scoreline a little less embarrassing. They only managed to take one of them, when the ball rolled out to Ally Graham at the edge of the area after a corner. His low shot found the corner of the net with the aid of a deflection. The other good attempt on goal came when Brian McPhee rose high to meet a cross from the right. His downward header was superb, but The Bee was left kicking the goalpost in frustration after former Accie John Hillcoat pulled off a superb save.
All that remained was the final goal a few minutes later. This was one of the most bizarre goals I've seen for years. A corner from the right was hit deep to the far post. Nobody moved to challenge for the ball, including Graham Potter, and it was headed gently goalwards by Ian Harty from the edge of the 6 yard box. Potter was frozen to the spot and there appeared to be no-one guarding the far post. The ball therefore trundled slowly over the line with no-one trying to stop it. As it nestled in the pokey there was a stunned silence, with not even the visiting support realising what had just happened.
When the first few goals had gone in the Stranraer management team of former Accies managers Billy McLaren and Ally Dawson had celebrated in fine style (which naturally stuck in the throat of the Accies fans). When the fourth and fifth goals were scored, they didn't celebrate much. I think they knew that the game was over.
Accies might well be finished too.
Accies: Potter, Ally Graham(I), Elfallah (McDonald), Dobbins, Sweeney, Smillie, Bonnar, Sherry, Armstrong (Keegans), McPhee, Callaghan
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